Rudder-controlled shield.



. S. McGOWAN.

RUDDER CONTROLLED SHIELD.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 14. \918.

Patented July 30, 1918.

Atlanta wwwwwwwww and being connected at their to HENRY 8. MOGOWAN, OFKcGOWAN, WASHINGTON.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 30, 1918.

Application filed umh 14, ms. Serial No. 222,441.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HENRY S. McGowan, citizen of the United States,residing at McGowan, in the county of Pacific and State of Washington,have invented certain I new and useful Improvements in Rudder-Controlled Shields; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it ap ertains to make and use thesame.

his invention relates to devices for protecting marine vessels or thelike from attack by torpedo. It is one of the objects to provide anextremely simple, practicable, comparatively inexpensive and efficientdevice for protecting marine vessels from injury by the explosion oftorpedoes against their hulls. It is an important obj ect of theinvention to provide for the ready control of the lateral positioning ofa set of torpedo barriers either while the vessel may be under headwayor at anchor, in either case there bein movement of the water relativeto the barriers and it is one of the objects to utilize the relativemovement of the water under suitable control means for automaticallybringing the barriers to the desired lateral position.

With these and other objects in view as will be manifest to thoseskilled in the art, the present invention consists of the combination,the construction, the organization and in details as described in thefollowing specification in relation to the embodiment of the inventionillustrated in the accompanying drawing in which Figure 1 is a plan viewof a vessel to which the apparatus is applied, and

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the leading end of one of the barriers.

The torpedo barrier of which there is one for each side of the shipcomprises a series or train of sheets of suitable material, indicated inFig. 2 as of wire netting 2, each of the sections being of suitabledimensions edges by a continuous cable, chain or ot er suitable flexibledevice 3, at suitable points of which along the top edge of the barriersections 2 are placed floats of suitable character 4. The top connectingmember 3 may be provided with suitable shackles or other flexibleconnecting means 5 at adjacent ends of each of the shield or barriersections as shown in Fig. 2. In a similar manner the bottom edges of thebarrier sections are provided wit and connected byga lower cable, chainor other suitable device 6 on which may be located, if desired, a seriesof weights or sinkers 7. The vertical edges of the sections may beprovided with suspension devices or other suitable elements which maytake the form of rods, cables, chains, etc., as indicated at 8 andadjacent vertical edges of the entrained sections 2 may be connectedwith shackles or links 9.

One of the important features of the pres ent invention consists inmeans carried b the trains of barrier sections for automatically, byaction of the relativel moving water, controlling the position oft ebarrier laterally from the sides of the ship and this means is shown ascomprising a series, one for each barrier train, of rudders or swingingblades 10 of suitable form which are respectivel pivoted on the front orleading ends of tile barrier sections 2, the axes of the rudders 10preferably being coaxial with front end of each of the sections. Thefirst or master rudder of a barrier, preferably has a portion as 10which extends forwardly of its axis so as to assist, owing to thepressure of the water swinging it about its axis, in the setting of thetrain of rudders, those for each barrier being connected by a tillerrope or cable 11 at their swinging ends which is passed through: arespective block or sheave 12 which in turn is mounted upon adjacentortions of a tow line 13 Which runs from t e leading end of the barriertrain up to a suitable guide and support 14 on the bow of the vessel.The tiller rope 11 after passing through the guide pulley or block 12runs up to the deck at the bow and is connected to a suitable Windlassor other controllin mechanism shown at 15 to which the tiller line fromeach of the side barriers is attached so that by slackening out of thetiller line 11 the pressure of the water on the blades or rudders 10 mayforce them to swing outwardly against the inner face of the barrier andconversely b the tightening up on the tiller ropes 11 t e resistance ofthe water moving past the rudders 10 causes the rudders to force thebarriers outwardly away from the sides of the vessel at which positionthey may be maintained under the control of the operator handling thecontrol device 15. In Fig. 2, the tow line 13 is shown as split andbranched into sections 13' formin a bridle connected to the front end ofthe leading barrier section 2 at point above and below the master rudder10.

From the foregoing, it will be obvious that the movement to a lateralgiven position of the torpedo barriers is controlled by the action ofthe water against the rudders 10, these being mounted 131F011 thebarriers and controlled from aboar the vessel by an operator letting outor taking up the tiller ropes at will. f the vessel is at anchor and ina body of water which is moving, the current of the water may beutilized to set the barriers, or obviously if the vessel is underheadway the barriers will be set by the action of the water against themoving barriers.

Various changes in the combination and arrangements and details of theparts may be resorted to wherein the scope of my invention andlimitations is of the appended. .claims.

For the purpose of providing a desirable degree of resilience for takingshocks derived by any cause, the tow-line 13 and the tiller rope 11 ofeach train of barriers may be provided with suitable sprin 16 atsuitable intervals which, if desire may be incased or sheathed in anysuitable or desired manner.

Vhat is claimed is:

1. The combination with a marine vessel of a pair of flexible torpedobarriers with floats and sinkers at the upper and lower edgesrespectively for maintaining the barriers in vertical position in thewater, and means including rudders carried by the barriers and tillerconnections for the rudders running to the ship and controlled fromaboard for regulating the lateral positions of barriers durin travel ofthe ship or relative movement of the water.

2. The combination with a marine vessel of a pair of flexible torpedobarriers with floats and sinkers at the upper and lower edgesrespectively for maintaining the barriers in vertical position in thewater, and rudders carried by the barriers for regulating the lateralpositions of barriers during travel of the ship or relative movement ofthe water and tow lines for connecting the fore ends of the barriers tothe bow of the vessel, and tiller connections for the rudders attachedto the tow lines and extended thence aboard ship.

3. The combination with a marine vessel of a pair of flexible torpedobarriers with floats and sinkers at the upper and lower edgesrespectively for maintaining the barriers in vertical position in thewater, series of rudders carried by the barriers for regulating thelateral ositions of barriers during travel of the sliip or relativemovement of the water, tow lines for connectingthe fore ends of thebarriers to the bow of the vessel and control means extending from thebow, and connected to the lines and thence to said series of rudders.

4. The combination with a marine vessel of a pair of flexible torpedobarriers with floats and sinkers at the upper and lower edgesrespectively for maintaining the barriers in vertical position in thewater, and means carried by the barriers and controlled from aboard forregulating the lateral positions of barriers during travel of the shipor relative movement of the water, said means includin a series ofconnected rudders spaced a ong the barriers.

5. The combination with a marine vessel of a pair of flexible torpedobarriers with floats and sinkers at the upper and lower edgesrespectively for maintaining the barriers in vertical position in theWater, and means carried by the barriers and controlled from aboard forregulating the lateral positions of barriers during travel of the shipor relative movement of of connected rudders spaced along the barrierseach set including a master rudder at the front end 0 6. A mine, torpedoor other explosive barrier for vessels or other objects to be protected,comprising a shield havin a series of vertically jointed sections, aseries of rudders adjustably attached to the shield, and a resilientconnection adjusted from aboard ship extending from rudder to rudder forsetting them, said rudders adapted to yield and automatically resume agiven position while subjected to shock or wave pressure.

7. A mine, torpedo or other explosive barrier for vessels or otherobjects to be protected, comprising a shield having a series of ruddersadjustably attached to the shield, and a yielding and resilientconnection extending from rudder to rudder for setting them, the ruddersyielding under wave or shock pressure and being automatically re-Fivoted between its ends the barrier.

set by said connection, one rudder located and a flexible and resilientconnection ex-- tending from rudder to rudder for settin them, the firstrudder of the series pivote between its ends on its shield, saidconnecand a connection extending from rudder to tion extending to andoperated from aboard rudder for setting them, said connection exthevessel. tending to and operated from aboard the 10 9. A mine, torpedo orother explosive barvessel, to be protected. 5 rier for vessels or otherobjects to be pro- In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

tected, comprising a shield having a, series of rudders adjustablyattached to the shield, HENRY S. MOGOWAN.

